By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
“All of my work is kind of a self-analysis — a search for my Jewishness,” says artist and Seattle native Leonard Piha.
Piha grew up in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood and attended Congregation Ezra Bessaroth. Now, at age 49, he lives in Athens, Ga., a small town 60 miles from Atlanta, where he attends the city’s only synagogue.
“I just love living in small towns,” says Piha. “There’s a lot of culture here.”
Yet much of his time of late has been spent in the city. The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta has commissioned a three-dimensional sculpture that Piha is completing.
The sculpture resembles, in Piha’s words, a “down-to-earth, rustic-looking tree.” It will stretch more than 16 feet. Donors’ names or memories will be etched on it. There will be room on the tree for more than 200 names, and each donor will receive a small replica inscribed with words of his or her choosing. The project is expected to raise $100,000.
“For me as an artist, it’s a wonderful opportunity to get my work known,” he says.
Piha is an artist by night. By day, he is an art teacher three miles away from his home, at Barnett Shoals Elementary School where his wife teaches English as a Second Language.
“I love teaching art to little kids,” says Piha.
He and his wife have two kids of their own who attend high school. They also have two dogs, four cats and a horse. The family lives in a house that Piha and his wife built themselves, complete with an art studio.
“In high school, I just lived in the art room,” says Piha.
While attending Western Washington University in the ‘70s, Piha wanted to create Jewish art. His instructor encouraged him to make art concerning more contemporary issues.
“That was a landmark for me,” says Piha, who ultimately chose to explore his own roots. “I’m very Jewish, but I’m not an observant Jew in the traditional sense,” he says. “I analyze my Judaism through my passion — that is art.”
Piha has kept his focus on Jewish discovery and celebration. Sex and anger have never entered into his work, he says. What does come into his work is a visual vocabulary of imagery — chairs, ladders, stairs, candles, hearts, people, an eye, a hand, tablets like the Ten Commandments, a tree, a chalice, a dove. His art often illuminates these shapes, cut out of old rusty metal. From the southern environment he is now accustomed to, Piha uses rusted tin from the roofs of dilapidated barns and chicken houses.
“I feel like I’m kind of reconfiguring a piece of Americana,” he says.
As for the JCC piece, due for completion by early fall, its creation means more to him than just a piece of art.
“I thought, my piece is going to help this place survive,” says Piha.
Visit www.atlantajcc.org for more information on Piha’s commissioned project. In addition to the MJCCA, some of Piha’s work has been on display at the Macon and Company Fine Art Gallery, also in Atlanta.